Small businesses within the fitness industry are expecting to lay off staff as they close their doors due to the coronavirus.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
On Sunday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced gyms and indoor sports centres would have to shut in stage one of measures to slow COVID-19's spread.
The decision has left many gym staff, instructors and personal trainers out of work for the foreseeable future.
Chris Dixon and Eleesha Nesci-Dixon, owners of Love Your Soul fitness studio and health food bar in Melbourne's seaside suburb of Parkdale, say they knew it was coming.
"We've been really proactive about creating an online space for our members, though we wish we had longer to prepare," Mr Dixon told AAP.
The couple decided to close both parts of their business, despite the government giving the green light to takeaway food services.
"Unfortunately, I couldn't even bulk un-enrol my automatic payment-clients, I had to go through every client individually and that was painful on so many levels," Mr Dixon said.
"Every time I clicked a button I was broken. Cancel, cancel, cancel."
They anticipate they will take a huge financial hit and despite offering an online service for members, they will have to slash instructors hours.
"We'll be able to pay them for one or two classes a week, but one of our main instructors usually does about 20 classes a week," Ms Nesci-Dixon said.
"That's not to mention the staff in our cafe. We employ about 15 people. It's awful."
Allied health workers including physiotherapists and physiologists, meanwhile, have been told they can remain open.
Kyle Richardson, director of Performance Exercise Physiology (PXP) in Melbourne's Heidelberg Heights, decided it was safer to move online than continue face-to-face services.
"We didn't feel comfortable using what we considered to be a loophole to stay open when we work with high-risk people who should be self-isolating," he told AAP.
PXP sees about 40 to 50 clients per day, including the elderly, people with heart disease, diabetes, respiratory conditions and those in remission from cancer.
Currently, Medicare-funded telehealth sessions are not available, with many clients paying out of pocket.
"If we can get them adequate home therapy, we can potentially keep those people healthy and out of hospitals while we're dealing with a public health crisis," Mr Richardson said.
The company was looking to hire more consultants before the pandemic but is instead going to have to reduce casual hours and potentially reduce wages.
"It's looking like unless we can drastically increase our sales via online services we will be significantly affected," he said.
Health Minister Greg Hunt on Tuesday said the government is working to enable all patients to access Medicare-funded online consultations from next week.
Fitness Australia CEO Barrie Elvish estimates about 20,000 fitness professionals are impacted by closures, while four million Australians have gym memberships in limbo.
"Those four million Australians are going to need to maintain exercise not only for their physical health but their mental wellbeing to deal with all the events happening around them," he said.
He said the industry body had been providing support to gym owners who are "absolutely distraught" and assisting them to move services online or outdoors.
"All you can hope is this is temporary and they can come back as soon as possible," Mr Elvish said.
Australian Associated Press
